Lieutenant Little Rose stood atop the crest of a sand dune which provided a clear view of the desert village below. The village had a population of about two thousand which made organizing an evacuation a little difficult but the local authorities helped ease the burden. Camel, ponies and other creatures alike were led from their homes and away from the settlement so that a meeting between two worlds could take place.
Many of the refugees carried as much as they could from their homes whether it be valuable possessions or a basic necessity. Occasionally, a mother would pass by leading her young away. The little ones showed their worries on the outside unlike many of the adults around them. The truth of the matter is that everyone is afraid and confused. Even the Guard.
Nopony knows what will happen or what to expect. They came suddenly and en mass but claimed to be here to negotiate. The intentions of the human force is obvious. They have the means to take what they want and yet they refrain from doing so. What are they playing at? Why did they bring so many if the only wish to negociate?
The pegasus halted his thoughts momentarily when the morning sun peaked out from behind a somewhat distant rock formation and shone in his eyes. A shadow was cast on a majority of the town making the sand in the sunlight take on an orange glow. There was a light breeze but aside from that everything is calm.
Today seems like it’ll be a long one. The feeling of the morning air told him that much.
Shining Armour stood at Celestia’s side in the doorway as ponies took their positions. The safety of the princess took precedence over anything else. Somewhere in the unicorn’s mind, he knew that if things took a turn for the worst they were doomed. Far too many things could go wrong here.
However, the captain’s main concern was Celestia herself. After hearing what he’d been told about her, the stallion wasn’t sure if she could even handle this at the moment.
Apprehensively, he looked up to her and built up his courage.
“Um, Your Highness?”
The alicorn looked down at him and raised an eyebrow. Shining gulped for a reason that was beyond his comprehension. He sighed once before continuing.
“No disrespect intended, but... are you sure you’re up for this?”
“I’ve lived for thousands of years, Captain, and I have experienced many things in my time. This will be a walk in the park for me. I think I can handle it.”
For a few moments, the unicorn debated whether or not he should pursue this topic. For Celestia’s sake, he decided to go on.
“Princess, believe me, I’m sure you could... on another occasion, though. I’ve been informed by one of my officers that earlier today, you seemed to be having a nervous breakdown. He also told me that you ordered him to keep quiet about it later on. He’s never given me a reason not to trust him and I know never to underestimate your pokerface. It’s not really my place to say this but all things considered, I think it would be best to call this off for now. Just for your sake.”
The sun goddess didn’t respond immediately. She let out a fatigued sigh and then looked into the unicorns eyes and smiled lightly. “I’m fine. I know you’re worried but I’m absolutely fine. It was only a night terror... the first one I’ve had in at least a century. As you heard, it was a very trying experience for me. I’ll have to speak with my sister on what it could have meant but it’s really nothing you should concern yourself with at the moment. We have more important things matters to attend to.”
As much as the Shining Armour wanted to deny it, he simply couldn’t. Not once has he ever been able to tell if Princess Celestia had ever lied to him but this time he could. However, even though she lied, she had a point. There were more important things to deal with at the moment. He’d talk with her about it later.
For now, he needed to make sure that everything will run smoothly so he could prove the bad feeling he had wrong. Even so, he knew well enough to at least to take heed of his gut feeling. That was kind of hard for him to do though because the only thing his gut told him, was that something was wrong.
By now the sun had made it above the mountain and lit the village below. The buildings cast long shadows into the wide dirt road which gave it a sort of striped effect. Unfortunately, the sun decided to move to a point where light was reflected off of one of the human’s flying machines and directly into the armored unicorn’s eyes forcing him to squint.
The light did nothing to mask the humans numbers. Aside from one of the biped’s, they all wore some kind strange armor. It looked to be made of fabric but he knew armor when he saw it. Each one of them carried black objects which Shining deduced to be weapons by the way the were held.
He could also see that they had some kind of organization because they too took good defensive positions and seemed to have every corner covered on their side of the road. The only one that truly stood out of the group was the one in what looked like a suit. He was obviously of some importance being among their warriors. Possibly their leader but with no real information to base it on, he just had to assume it to be true.
A pegasus flew in and landed a few steps to the captain’s right and saluted.
“Sir, evacuation is complete.”
Shining Armour took a deep breath to prepare himself. This was it.
The stallion looked up to pony on the roof of an adjacent building and cranked his hoof in a circular motion. Catching the motion, the pony on the roof stood up and repeated the gesture to alert the rest of the Guard detachment to perform whatever task each of them were assigned. Shining Armour turned back to the courier to address him. Remembering who was beside him, he moved closer to speak.
“I need you to remain here until this is over. If anything goes wrong, I need you to make your way to the embassy in Ishtuvan and inform them of the situation. Until then, keep a low profile and keep your distance. If things get bad, you’re our only way getting a message back to Canterlot. Can you handle that, Private?”
“You can count on me, sir.”
“Great, you are dismissed.” With that, the pegasus flew away.
Shining Armour returned to Celestia’s side and glanced at her. He couldn’t quite put a hoof on it, but something was off about her. Regardless, he began trotting forward with the princess towards the the middle ground of the street. The humans caught on and sent out the suited man and one of the warriors. The stallion sighed and glanced at the morning sun. He hoped that everything would work out in the end. Somehow, he knew better. It was going to be a very long day.
Just before both parties reached the middle ground, Shining glanced at the alicorn one more time. For the briefest of moments, he caught her smiling.